The woman told Army Radio that she bought her elderly mother a new mattress as a surprise on and in doing so threw out the old one, only to discover that her mother had hidden her life savings inside.

When she went to look for the mattress it had already been taken by garbage men, she said. Subsequent searches at three different landfill sites turned up nothing.

The Israeli daily Yediot Ahronot published a picture of the woman searching through garbage at a dump in southern Israel.

Yitzhak Borba, the dump manager, told the radio station that his staff was helping the woman, saying she appeared “totally desperate.” He said the mattress was hard to find among the 2,500 tons of garbage arriving at the site every day.

He said he increased security at the site to keep would-be treasure hunters at bay.

For her part, the woman who threw out the mattress said it could be worse. “People have to take everything in proportion and thank God for the good and the bad,” she said. yeah, that’s easy for her to say – she didn’t lose her life savings. I would imagine the daughter’s next responsibility if the money isn’t found is to support her mother for the rest of her days.